Co-organisers of the FDI Summit Slovenia 2014, The Slovenia Times and Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, organised follow-up event of the conference where current most important economic issues were discussed with Finance Minister Dušan Mramor. The event was organised in cooperation with main foreign economic chambers in Slovenia, German, Austrian, Italian, American and British.
The participants, top managers from 50 Slovenian companies and leading economists, focused on business expectations which were clearly defined on FDI Summit in October 2014: clear communication about government priorities, better implementation of strategies, promises, further, transparent privatisation,, „user friendly“ public administration,less bureaucracy, functioning banking sector, better infrastructure, lower tax burdens, lower labour costs, especially for highly educated workforce and better, coordinated, focused promotion of the country, brand Slovenia.
Finance Minister Dušan Mramor is convinced that a lot has been done under new government. »Don´t forget that we are »in power« only for four months, I think that progress has been made and first results are already here«. He pointed out rebalanced budget for 2014, budget for 2015 which will be prepared in few days, agreement with public sector trade unions, Social pact and strategy for strategy assets management which was already sent to PM Cerar and coalition is expected to discuss it in few days.
Participants agreed that some progress was made, Slovenia is growing again on base of robust export sector, basic international credibility is restored, government is preparing rebalanced budget for 2015 which will be in line with EU rules, privatisation of the „first package“ of 15 companies is progressing, but we are still waiting for state assets management , privatisation strategy and new dangerous political tensions about privatisation reappeared inside government.
Everybody agreed that Slovenia needs operational development strategy, clearly defined strategic priorities, we are also still waiting for reform programme. Last but not least, promotion of Slovenia is still dispersed, poorly coordinated facing new reorganisation.
